KJV Luke 10: 30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. 34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
If anyone has read Luther, he knows the Good Samaritan is not a social worker trying to establish man-man justice or a social activist who should have made the road to Damascus safer. The Samaritan is Jesus.
But who are the priest and the Levite today?
The Missouri Synod and its tag-along ELDONUTs are the priest, walking experts and advocates of all the adiaphora. Like the colorful priests of the Old Testament, they are passionate about matters of indifference and indifferent to the truth.
The Missouri Synod started with Justification by Faith, just as the Old Testament began with true prophetic words (example - the largely forgotten Genesis 15:6 passage, also cited in Romans 4). False prophets like CFW Walther, Edward Preuss, and F. Pieper promoted the false teaching of forgiveness without faith, which is essentially the ELCA position.
The Wisconsin sectarians are the Levites, all about the Law, or rather, the constantly changing Law. One year they are alone in loving the KJV, unlike "those liberal Lutherans" - who use the NIV and RSV. But - WELS turns around, mocks, and gets rid of pastors who use the KJV.
The ELDONUTs did the same, 100% of them holding Objective Justification a treasure, later pivoting to Justification by Faith. Much like the WELS, they hold the best translation - the KJV - in low esteem, using the ESV (a Calvinist first cousin to the RSV) or admiring the New KJV (which uses frequent footnotes to honor the ESV-NIV-RSV apostasy).
Although Missouri clergy and laity pride themselves on shunning other Lutherans, WELS and ELDONA have taken that attitude to a new, lower level.
The Man Left for Dead
The congregations of Missouri and WELS are the man left for dead, wounded and bleeding along the road, where so many robbers practice their trade.
Jesus fed the multitudes with bread and fish, but the loving/denying Church Growth "conservative" Lutherans feed the laity popcorn, peanuts, and soft drinks during the entertainment [worship] service. The clergy delight in starving their members spiritually while insisting on the need for more expensive materialism to attract even more superficial audiences.
Jesus only taught one thing - faith in Him as the only access to God's grace (KJV Romans 5:2). Everything in the Bible points back to this Gospel and the applications of this message.
